A Tale of Two Academic Teams

Chapter 26: Meltdown

"There are no competitors from Louisiana left in the main events, it's all down to you!" the Venomous Agendas' head debate coach informs Sadie once he could locate the PF pair on campus.

Not only I must bear the weight of the entire quiz bowl-playing world for a third game, since Chloe finished 17th in the quarters, with Chantal out of the picture, I must also bear the entire weight of the Louisiana debate circuit tomorrow morning! The pressure is even more intense than at the HSNCT! More players, an even grander stage, and I don't need to be reminded of that game against DCC at the HSNCT! Sadie ruminates, upon hearing her coach's words going into the fourth day of NSDA Nats.

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Back at home, the three boys return from their getaway at Lake Charles, and they return home to news of Chantal's elimination that they learn from their parents.

"Now that Chantal and the policy pair are eliminated, there's only one team left that could make this Cinderella debate season truly magical to us the way the EGMO and, to a lesser extent, the HSNCT has been" Hank's father tells the trio.

"True, when you live in a rural town like ours, there isn't much, and the high school tends to dominate the town's socio-cultural life. But I really hope this tournament ends" Hank tells his father, sighing about these new results.

"I had enough of hearing about how policy this, extemp that, public forum that... as if the HSNCT and the EGMO weren't enough as it is!" Qian complains.

"Plus this parish always seemed to highlight girls when it comes to academic tournaments!" Logan tells Hank's father after handing over the keys to the car to his father.

Policy placing tenth, Chantal being seventh in international extemp, public forum finishing at least eighth. At the beginning of the season, no one could have predicted the VAs perform that well at Nats going in, especially not since it was the VAs' first appearance since the modern incarnation of the debate team existed, and even the most optimistic pre-season forecasts barely included winning one or two events at NSDA-State.

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Meanwhile, Daisy comes over at Anna's home in an attempt to set the record straight about that fight with Gaston the previous night. She finds Anna a little distraught.

"Anna, it seems like there's something wrong. What is it?" Daisy asks Anna.

"I broke up with Gaston after this fight" Anna answers, while crying. "While he acknowledged people benefit from debating, I wonder why did he believe I needed to regularly enter inter-state tournaments to get them?"

"Maybe he took advantage of your period to provoke you. Maybe he thinks you are not starting from scratch" Daisy gives some hypotheses.

"That's it! You saw me in this fight, you would have a better idea if I actually have some foundation to build upon. Before we broke up at the karaoke night, he said I could play LD" Anna adds. "So maybe he talked about LD specifically"

"But you do need higher levels of all the areas you benefit from debating to succeed on the nat-circuit. Plus if you were to join the team next season, you would actually get to play novice LD in inter-state tournaments we enter. You might not play LD at my level right out of the gate, but you seem to be OK with not doing well in the beginning, and you're right in that the core benefits aren't tied to one's wins and losses. From my experience, the people who obsess the most about their results are the people in the top half of the performance continuum"

"He makes me not want to play. Couple that with band, which, generally, does not interfere with quiz bowl, but interferes with debate. But what about we take a diagnostic SAT? Just without Gaston, he can take his diagnostic SAT or ACT whenever he wants" Anna suggests to Daisy.